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Making Movies: Behind the scenes of Clone Rival
Castrol celebrate their latest Titanium Trial with the release of two, truly ground-breaking films
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When you’re already among the best at something, just how do you find new ways to push the limits? For Castrol, continual development and refinement of its products is a given; finding new ways of doing it is the really interesting bit. Like the idea of testing yourself, against… yourself, for example.
Castrol work with the likes of Aston Martin and Koenigsegg to help them push those boundaries so the answer was obvious: use virtual reality to recreate what already exists and then lay down a challenge that sees them to go head-to-head. They called it Clone Rivals.
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To really make the Clone Rival concept come to life, special effects were always going to play a big part. Leading VFX and content company, The Mill, created everything that wasn’t ‘real’ for these films: the ‘cloned’ Aston Martin Vulcan and Koenigsegg One:1; all the motion graphics and visual effects in the laboratory and pit garage; and, crucially, the engine ‘fly-through’ sequences that show how Castrol EDGE works.
“From receiving the CAD drawings of the cars to the series of long nights, our 2D, 3D – even 4D – artists worked, it took six-weeks and 20 people in total to create everything you see in the final films,” explains Creative Director, Tom Wansbrough-Jones. “These may not be feature length films, but this was a considerable job, given the number of shots and scale of assets required for each film.”
The size of the job sticks in the memory of Clone Rival Director, Jako, too. This vastly experienced cinematographer has shot some of the most famous – and successful – dramatic action ever seen on the big screen, including the major sequences from Gladiator, Casino Royale and the most recent Bond epic, Spectre. These two Castrol films are only two and a half minutes long but the approach Jako took was pure Hollywood. “It goes without saying that a project such as this can only be approached with a big-screen attitude. Preparation and planning are everything.”
And it needed the kit to match. “For extreme action – especially when filming cars – you need a fully stabilized, remotely-operated camera system, ideally on a Russian Arm tracking vehicle. And for aerial shots: beneath a helicopter. These are the real game-changers.” And if you’re wondering why a drone couldn’t do the same job as the chopper, the answer is simple: the drone that can keep up with a Vulcan or a Koenigsegg hasn’t been made yet…
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To create the cloned versions of each car, the drivers – Darren Turner and Christoffer Nygaard – spent a full day in a highly sophisticated simulator, setting ‘ghost’ laps around a virtual version of the chosen circuit: Ascari, in Spain. There was one clear objective: to drive their ultimate lap which they would then aim to beat on the track for real, at Ascari.Combining years of CGI experience with the latest immersive, virtual reality technologies, a company called REWIND worked with leading Neuroscientist, Dr. Jack Lewis, to assess the two drivers.
It took six weeks to create incredibly accurate track and car configurations, using detailed satellite and survey data of the circuit. This was split into eight sectors and included trackside markers and kerb detailing, for example, to make it feel as realistic as possible for the drivers. Both on the VR rig, and at the circuit itself, the drivers were fitted with advanced biometric sensors to capture respiration and heart-rate, muscle tension, body temperature and brainwave activity. This enabled direct comparisons to be drawn between virtual and real laps, together with the ultimate test: the actual lap times each driver set.
For Aston Martin’s Darren Turner, the whole experience of making Clone Rivals was a variation on a theme. Twice a class winner at Le Mans, the 42-year old has enjoyed a long and varied career in motorsport. He is well used to spending time in simulators, time in front of the camera and – of course – he gets paid to push the limits of performance every time he races. “But making these films was different,” he explains. “I’d never actually driven Ascari before and getting the chance in the simulator first is not dissimilar to what might happen during a race season. But the laboratory conditions of those virtual sessions were very different. I definitely felt under more pressure.”
“Clone Rivals sounded like an interesting project to us from the beginning,” explains Christian von Koenigsegg, founder of the Swedish supercar maker that bears his name. “We were aware of Castrol’s previous Titanium Trials and we knew this would be a great test of both man and machine. We also knew that the One:1 would totally be up to the task.” Koenigsegg has a reputation for producing especially robust supercars, meaning there was not a lot of pre-preparation required for the shoot at Ascari. “The car we used is owned by a private customer with close ties to the company and so we know the car very well. It was serviced, of course, and carefully checked over both before and after the shoot. Ascari is a very demanding track and it certainly tested every part on the car to the limit.” This Titanium Trial was not just a film shoot for Koenigsegg.
Like Castrol, it is a company that is constantly working to improve its product. Every new technological advance it introduces puts new pressures on the car and the Ascari shoot was a useful R&D opportunity for Koenigsegg, too.
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